Simple and Sweet Summertime Memories

With school out and vacation time abundant, the summer is the opportunity to spend some quality time with your whole family and friends and create those memories that will last forever.

You don't need to be extravagant, memories are made in the simplest and sweetest ways.

We came up with five ways to make memories with your family.

1. Make stepping stones.

Your little ones are growing up faster than you can believe. It seems like just yesterday that you were holding their little feet and now those feet are sprinting through the backyard. Craft stores sell stepping stone kits that will immortalize those little footprints in a lasting mementos for you.

Your kids can help you decorate the stones and mom and dad's feet make a welcome addition to a whole family of toes! One day you can look back and remember how tiny their little feet were.

Have your kids fill a container that won't break down in the elements and bury it in a garden bed. Be sure to mark the spot you buried the tiny treasure so you don't lose it!

3. Make a height chart.

Kids are completely amazed with making progress on a growth chart. Setting aside a place in your home to routinely measure their growth, is a piece of your home that grows with you. Families have been doing this for generations and when your kids are older, they can show their kids that they used to be small too!

Doorways make the best height charts and using colorful paint pens and markers will add a splash of color and attention to their progress!

Sure, there will be plenty of pictures of people's feet and blurry photos of their own feet. But there also will be plenty of little details that adults might have missed. Kids see the beauty in so many little things, why not let them capture it all.

5. Create a new family tradition.

Kids are creatures of habit and over the years a family tradition will be something everyone can look forward to. Keep it simple and plan for a family vacation to the zoo every summer, a family barbeque every august or even a trip to a baseball game.

Sometimes life gets so busy that we forget to appreciate all the little things that happen every day.

Spending time with your family and creating memories that live on will be the best gift you can ever give. Involve the whole family and cherish the opportunity to enjoy summertime and all it has to offer.